[whatwg] The problems with namespaces in text/html (Was: MathML-in-HTML5)

[Lachlan Hunt]

Elliotte Harold wrote:
> If all we're doing is HTML, fine. However people are now in this thread 
> talking about putting MathML into this.

There has been plenty of discussion about introducing MathML-like markup 
into HTML 5.  Although, personally, I'm not convinced that it's a good 
idea.  This works in Mozilla and, given the right plugins, should work 
in others too.

<object type="application/mathml+xml" data="math.xml"></object>

> In other forums people are discussing adding XForms.

I think the discussions about XForms are about trying to retrofit the 
XForms model into the HTML forms syntax.  I'm not convinced that's a 
good idea either, but that's what they've been discussing over on www-forms.

> However what I'm hearing is that people do want to mix in different 
> vocabularies such as MathML and XForms without using namespaces,

No, not without namespaces, just without the xmlns and QNames syntax.

e.g. when <math> is encountered in text/html, it appears in the DOM as 
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">

We definitely don't want people thinking they can use any arbitrary 
xmlns in HTML.  That's what XHTML is for.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/